The poem I posted here a few days ago about theremins has made its way in the world…

http://www.thereminworld.com/

it’s too easy to talk about feeling cold and alone
this early in the morning.
right now, for instance,
i am both cold and alone,

but since it’s 20 something outside
and this bedroom is unheated
and the alone part — well,
let’s put that aside for the moment;

since those things are true
it would be difficult for me not to be
cold
and alone.

there are times
when you just have to be
the way you are. there are times
when the way you are

is perfect. it’s not as if the night
could switch to day at your whim,
or the body you crave could be yours
for the asking.

it’s not as if lighting a fire
can solve everything. there are times
when all it does
is burn everything down.

still, scorched earth
can become
fertile ground
if you are willing to wait a bit.

so, it’s cold again. it’s night again.
i am alone again. the matches
still sit on the bedside table, and what happens next
will be perfect, no matter what that is.

pswordwoman

“Conversely, where the afterlife of the dead receives new life, the earth as a whole receives a new blessing.”

— Robert Pogue Harrison, “The Dominion of the Dead”

1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the sentence along with these instructions.
5. Don’t search around and look for the “coolest” book you can find. Do what’s actually next to you.

It was on my bedside table, I swear. A fascinating book on how the legacies of those who went before us shape (and honestly, control) our worldview, our actions, our lives. Author’s contention: “culture” is for the most part an attempt to live up to the expectations of the dead, and to create in the next generation a desire to do the same for us when we’re gone. That’s a huge oversimplification of a lot of it, but it gets the idea across.

In other meme news, I won’t be doing the year in review meme. I can tell already how this year is going to look to me when i look back on it.